Shock at resignation of City University vice-chancellor

Academics at City University spoke of their shock and dismay today at the resignation of vice-chancellor Professor Malcolm Gillies over "differing views" with the governing body about how to run the institution.

Apurv Bagri, the acting chair of the university council, wrote to staff today to tell them Gillies would step down immediately.

Gillies, a popular vice-chancellor who took over at City two years ago, will leave his post at the end of the day, but will continue as professor of music until January 2010. Professor Julius Weinberg, the university's deputy vice-chancellor, will take over Gillies' managerial responsibilities.

Bagri's letter said: "The university is in an extremely strong position. The council and the vice-chancellor had, however, differing views on matters of governance and, putting the best interests of the university first, both parties agreed this was the right decision."

Staff believe the disagreement was over cuts and deficits, and Gillies' liberal, academic approach to running the university. Gillies is said to have focused on learning, teaching and research and the student experience rather than running the university primarily as a business.

The university had deficits of £4m last year and the council has been asked to approve a £4m deficit for 2008-09 – partly because of funding cuts to health science courses by the NHS. But City expects a surplus of £26m this year after the sale of two halls of residence and a spokeswoman insisted the university continues to have a strong balance sheet.

An academic at the university said: "Everybody was completely gobsmacked when they got the email saying he was resigning over differences of governance. The council is heavily weighted towards business people and a corporate approach."

Another academic said: "We're in a position of having to make cuts within the budget and [Gillies'] line has been that he wanted to safeguard frontline teaching staff and learning and research, but clearly he's been totally overruled by the ruling body of the university, so that his position is untenable. This has implications for all universities because City is not as badly affected as quite a few others.

"He's not the resigning type. He was really enjoying the job and was the best thing that's happened to our university in terms of staff morale and refocusing on students and learning that we all think is important."

Bagri's letter stated that core activities of education, research and knowledge transfer would remain "absolute priorities".

A spokeswoman for the university said the final decision was "mutal and amicable".